SHOWHOUSE...DAY ONE!!!

Day One...the work has begun!!  Yvonne and I set out on this beautiful day to Kittery Point, Maine, to start work on our spaces for the Old York Museum's Decorator Showhouse.  Along with our friend Katherine, we are working on a "mudroom", two bathrooms, and a bedroom.  I started on the mudroom and Yvonne hit the bathrooms.

Mudroom...such a strange name for this space.  There is neither "mud", nor "room".  Let's call it like it is - it's a back entryway and hallway.

And just for kicks, there is the refrigerator back that juts out into my closet space!  A total design challenge!

So armed with drills, crowbars and assorted tools, I unscrewed, unglued, un-stapled and un-nailed!  And that was just the closet!  Out came all the shelving, brackets, and wall mollies.  Next up, the rug!

The rug was industrial grade and brown....need I say more...??  It also had a mat that was screwed down to it to within an inch of its life!  The question of the day was.....WHAT WILL I FIND UNDER THE RUG??  After giving the top mat a decent burial, I pulled up a corner of the rug and saw pad and underlayment!  Ok, not so bad...  I pulled out my trusty utility knife and cut away a large piece.  Cut like butter!!  "This is going to be a breeze!" I thought.  Silly me.   The next section was more like tough meat.  When I finally got it cut away and pulled up the pad, I found.............LINOLEUM????    Really????  And not just linoleum.  Linoleum that had the pad stapled to it.  Linoleum that was coming up and cracking at the edges.  Let's leave the linoleum alone for today - plenty of pad and rug to rip up.  Oh, and did I mention the rug tack strips???  Thank the good lord for flatbars and hammers! Whack...pry...whack...pry....the music of the day.

Enough exertion!  I needed some lunch!  Yvonne and I went to a charming bakery/sandwich shop called the Beach Pea.  After purchasing two delectable sandwiches, we came back to the house and sat outside in the lovely garden by the "ce-ment pond".  (Anyone who ever saw the "Beverly Hillbillies" on tv will know what I am talking about!)  Beautiful setting overlooking the cove...sunny day...soft breeze...just the rejuvenation we needed before heading back to work!

                Here is Yvonne saying "bye, bye birdies" to the bird themed wall stencil.

And this is what the "non-mud", "non-room" looked like by the end of the day.  And the linoleum?  That's a story for next time!

And so the transformation starts.  By the end of June, this mudroom will have a new coat of paint, a new flooring, a new purpose and a new name!  Stay tuned for Day 2!

"First comes thought; then organizations of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality.  The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination." - Napoleon Hill (American author 1883-1970)